State News

Motorcycling WA Mythbusters #6

This is the sixth in a series of articles designed to bust some of the myths about what Motorcycling Western Australia does, the services offered and the programs we run to benefit members of affiliated clubs.

Myth: Because of MWA rider numbers have decreased over the past 10 to 15 years. There used to be heaps of clubs and heaps of riders and now there are not many.

Fact: In 2003 there were 1562 licence holders (of which 1027 were senior national). In 2016 there were 2564 licence holders (of which 1525 are senior national). It is a fact that in the last 3 years there has been a decline, and we expect this to continue, and this has seen a fall from the 2013 records of 3014 licence holders (of which 1673 were senior national). Rider numbers have increased for a few reasons: our club volunteers have worked really hard to make clubs a great place to ride; our clubs have become safer places to ride in part to attention to MWA guidance to risk; and because of the direct impact of a number of MWA initiatives (more later) including actively assisting new clubs to affiliate and to assist new club start ups. In 2003 there were 28 affiliated clubs, in 2016 there were 42 clubs.